Dispatch from press tour: ABC president talks 'Grey's ghost, unhappy actors, canceled shows and more

ABC president Steve McPherson's executive session on the press tour's last day was lively enough, with talk about the ghost sex storyline on "Grey's Anatomy," the cancellation of shows like "Pushing Daisies" and more, that it would have been worth covering anyway. But the scrum with reporters after the press conference was remarkably contentious once reporters started asking about unrest on the set of "Grey's."

Here are a few excerpts from the scrum:

Why are so many "Grey's Anatomy" actors jumping ship?

Which actors have jumped ship?

Melissa George.

Melissa George was a guest for one episode.

So many guests are just leaving. And she was more than one episode.

I'm not going to answer the question. It's an absurd question. The only person who has left the show was Isaiah Washington.

Brooke Smith.

(At this point, McPherson's eyes narrow as he turns his head and exhales in disgust.)

Melissa had contracted for 8 and wasn't on all of them.

She didn't contract for that many episodes

That's what she says.

We all know what everybody says when they leave the show. They want to say what's best for them.

It was more than one.

I think it was three episodes. She was talked about in one, and she was in two others.

(IMDB says she was in five, and I can think of at least four off the top of my head.)

Brooke Smith was in the opening credits at the start of the season. Was that, did you just not like the character or the story?

Yeah, the character was not working for us, and the dynamic with the relationship was not working for us. We feel Sara is such a dynamic character, and an amazing actress and we just weren't seeing the excitement out of that relationship. There was some mention that we were upset by the lesbian nature, but she is going to be in a dedicated lesbian relationship on the show. So, again, that was an actress who was trying to talk about something in the manner that would serve her in the manner.

There's been a lot of talk about T.R. Knight being unhappy and wanting to leave the show.

I'm not going to comment on behind the scenes stuff. Stuff gets said that spreads, stuff that's wrong.

Do you expect him to be with the show next season?

Yes.

Do you expect "Grey's" to be back next season?

That's the last question. (He starts walking away, shaking his head.) It's the number three show on television.

Things were tamer in the session, where the topics covered included:

• On the "Izzie has sex with a ghost" story from "Grey's": "It's not a ghost, which you'll learn. When you get to the end of the season, you'll see what everything she had in mind. It might not be your cup of tea, but you'll be surprised at how insightful and actually smart the story line is."

• On the failure of shows like "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money" that ABC didn't bring back immediately after the writers strike last season: "We could have probably gotten maybe 2 or 3 episodes of the Wednesday night shows on the air in the spring. What we were worried about then was, we were looking at the SAG strike, and that it could start in the summer and completely disintegrate the fall. So we made the gamble, hindsight is 20/20, clearly people did not come back to them the way we had hoped. I don't know that we had a better option. I just wish the strike hadn't happened at all."

(McPherson later said that he would love to find a way to air the remaining episodes of those shows and "Eli Stone," but that a number of financial and rights issues had to be resolved first, even just to put them all up on ABC.com.)

• On the ratings for "Scrubs" so far and whether he might want to keep the show going after Zach Braff leaves at the end of this season, McPherson said he was mostly pleased with the ratings but is waiting for more data. And while he and "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence continue to talk about another year for the show, "It would be hard to do it without Zach."

• On whether this is at last, at long last, the final season for "According to Jim": "Don't you think we should leave that open? 'Jim' has been an amazing asset for us... I think this is probably the final run, but you never say never."